Koch
Industries, Inc. is based in Wichita, Kansas. Koch owns a diverse group of companies that are located in fifty countries with about 30,000 employees. The origins of the company began with Fred C. Koch. He developed an improved method of refining crude oil. Winkler-Koch Engineering built oil refineries in Russia in the 1920s and 1930s. From these developments, Koch and his partners founded the Wood River Oil and Refining Company in St. Louis in 1940. Charles G. Koch, current chief executive officer and chairman of the board, renamed the company Koch Industries Inc.
in 1968 in honor of his father Fred. Koch's
presence in Canada commenced in 1959 when it attained a minority interest in the Great Northern Oil Company, which also held interest in the South Saskatchewan Pipeline Company. As Koch grew, so did the amount of crude oil from the Hardisty, Alberta terminal that was transported to its Pine Bend refinery near St. Paul, Minnesota. Pine Bend has the capacity to refine 280,000 barrels per day of predominantly Canadian crude oil. Today, Flint Hills Resources, an independent subsidiary of Koch Industries Inc., operates the Minnesota refinery and conducts supply and trading functions from its Calgary office.
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